Dennis Marks v. City of Wausau

United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Submitted January 20, 2015 *
Decided January 23, 2015
Before
RICHARD A. POSNER, Circuit Judge
MICHAEL S. KANNE, Circuit Judge
DIANE S. SYKES, Circuit Judge
No. 13‐3410
DENNIS MARKS,
Plaintiff‐Appellant,
v.
CITY OF WAUSAU, et al.,
Defendants‐Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District
Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
No. 11‐cv‐00612
William M. Conley,
Chief Judge.
O R D E R
Dennis Marks appeals the grant of summary judgment against him in this action
under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 asserting denial of access to the courts in connection with his
appeal of his traffic citations. We affirm.
In 2010 Marks was ticketed twice in Wisconsin for operating a vehicle after its
registration had been suspended and twice for driving with a suspended license. At a
later proceeding in municipal court, Marks agreed to plead no contest to two charges of
* After examining the briefs and record, we have concluded that oral argument is
unnecessary. Thus the appeal is submitted on the briefs and record. See FED. R. A PP. P.
34(a)(2)(C).
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION
To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1

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No. 13‐3410 Page 2
driving without a valid driver’s license. A few days later, Marks requested a copy of the
record of proceedings in order to appeal the municipal court’s judgment. When the
municipal court clerk tried to make a copy of the recording, however, she discovered
that the recorder—a solid state recording device—had malfunctioned and that no
recording existed. Marks appealed to the Marathon County Circuit Court, but failed to
appear at a scheduled pretrial conference and a default judgment was entered against
him.1
A week before the pretrial conference was to occur, Marks brought this suit in
the Marathon County Circuit Court, alleging that the defendants (the City of Wausau,
the municipal court judge who presided over the underlying case, the city attorney, and
the municipal court’s clerk) blocked his access to state courts and violated his due
process rights. The case was removed to federal court, and the district court granted
summary judgment for the defendants. The court understood Marks to be bringing an
access‐to‐courts claim (based on the defendants’ refusal to file court documents and
otherwise enable him to appeal his municipal court convictions) but concluded that
Marks suffered no prejudice because he had in fact been allowed to proceed with his
appeal to the Marathon County Circuit Court. Default judgment was entered against
him, the court observed, because he failed to appear at the scheduled pretrial
conference. The court also rejected Marks’s remaining state‐law claims for “obvious lack
of merit.”
On appeal Marks generally challenges the grant of summary judgment against
him and maintains that the defendants intentionally destroyed the municipal court’s
records to “cover up their treachery” and thereby deny him due process and access to
the courts. But as the district court explained, Marks’s claim fails because he has not
shown how he was actually injured. To establish denial of access, a plaintiff must show
that he suffered an actual injury because “official acts frustrated” his right to bring a
“nonfrivolous” legal claim. Christopher v. Harbury, 536 U.S. 403, 415 (2002); In re Maxy,
674 F.3d 658, 661 (7th Cir. 2012). Marks did not show how the lost recording hindered
his appeal; it was his failure to appear at the scheduled pretrial conference that led to
the default judgment.
1 In the district court Marks asserted that he did not receive notice of the conference because the notice
was sent to an outdated address, but he does not press the matter on appeal.

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No. 13‐3410 Page 3
We AFFIRM the district court’s judgment and DENY Marks’s request for an
order “directing the district court to provide appellant with the complete document
record from the Marathon County Court and the City of Wausau Municipal Court.”

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